ScottCampbell
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Double Fine releases Psychonauts app
The great game developer Double Fine has released an app for the App Store, and it's related to their very popular game Psychonauts (which recently arrived on the Mac App Store itself), but it's not, unfortunately, a port of the game. The Psychonauts Vault Viewer is instead sort of an ancillary add-on to the title, a compendium of all of the game's "memory vault" animations, along with new commentary from the game's creators Scott Campbell and Tim Schafer. It's interesting but if you've never played Psychonauts, you probably won't find a lot of enjoyment in the app itself. If you love the game, the app is like an extras DVD, with lots of game content and some other features. Vault Viewer is a free universal app, available now on the App Store. We've seen quite a few game companies use Apple's platform in this way, creating ancillary apps to their main games, and making use of the mobile platforms as a sort of a "second screen" for players either while they're playing or for a game on another platform. I wouldn't be surprised to eventually see a full iOS game from Double Fine, but for now, this is what we've got.
Eat, Sleep, Play with Jaffe's new studio
David Jaffe and Scott Campbell are proud to announce the creation of their new studio. Jaffe, an outspoken developer, is famous for his work on the God of War series. Campbell, founder of Incognito, is receiving accolades for his latest project, Warhawk. Jaffe and Campbell have collaborated previously on the PlayStation downloadable game, Calling All Cars.Their new studio called "Eat, Sleep, Play" will be designing multiple games, exclusively for the PlayStation family of products. The first project is planned to release in 2008. In addition, the company will also be releasing Twisted Metal: Head On for the PlayStation 2, which will feature new levels not found in Black Part II, and a new documentary.Additional details aren't available yet -- but we're hoping that Jaffe and Campbell will be able to create games with just as much energy and creativity as they did when they were part of Sony's internal studios. The fact that they're still working exclusively with Sony is a huge win for us, and we can't wait to see what comes to fruition.[Update: Jaffe has updated his personal blog with some more info: "Again, we are working with Sony and that just feels great. We met with some other interested parties but at the end of the day, Sony is our home, our family, and we're really thrilled and honored they wanted to work with us and continue the relationship we've spent almost 15 years cultivating. So in many ways, it's like very little has changed, other than the pay cut."][Thanks, Glenn!]
